Roku For Business: TV Channels are the New Website.

By Phil Autelitano
I say it all the time, “Connected TV channels are the new website,” and with Roku leading the pack in OTT/Connected TV platforms, it only makes sense that if you’re going to have “the new website,” you should have it on the platform with the most viewers and the most ease-of-access. Twenty-five years ago, the Internet was new and I was selling web development at a time when many brands and businesses couldn’t see any logical reasons why they needed a website. Today, I sell TV channel development, often to the same people, but at least this time around, they’re much more open to the idea of new technologies.
Now there are SO MANY ways a business — any business — can benefit from having their own branded TV Channel on Roku and Connected TV platforms, but here are the ones I pitch most:
- Credibility — The “idea” of your brand or business having it’s own “TV show” or “TV channel” or “network” adds INSTANT CREDIBILITY in the eyes of potential clients and customers. For many years, marketers have seen published articles (or more so, their own column) in a major publication or having a TV or Radio show as the Holy Grail of Credibility. Of course, getting one was difficult, so a lot of marketers launched their own newsletters or publications as a way of creating that instant credibility. A Roku Channel is much more than your own newsletter — it’s your own TV channel, with your own TV show, and any and all content YOU want to present to your potential clients. It has IMPACT. It automatically positions you and your company as the EXPERT(S) in your field.
- Build Brand Loyalty — Now that you’re the EXPERT in your field, with your own TV Channel and TV Show, you build loyalty by keeping viewers coming back. By providing fresh, new content every day or week, you keep them coming back for more — and part of the equation. Your Channel becomes another line of communication directly between you and your customers. It serves the same purpose as a mailing list, but is WAY MORE intimate; with a TV Channel, you reach your customers at a time when they’re more relaxed — sitting on the couch, watching TV — and open to new ideas. You bring yourself into their homes — it’s you and them.
- Build Brand Awareness — While you’re reaching your existing customer base, at the same time, you’re reaching a totally new and growing market you’re not otherwise reaching anywhere else, online or off. Your Roku Channel is accessible by millions of viewers nationally and worldwide. It’s built-in, free marketing gravy. Even a WEBSITE doesn’t have this kind of reach — there’s too much competition between websites for top search results. On Roku and Connected TV platforms, however, there’s a good chance NO ONE has a similar channel, or there’s only a small handful of competing channels. Your channel doesn’t get LOST on Roku like your website does on the Web, or your videos do on YouTube.
- Create a Passive Revenue Stream — There’s more than one way to earn money from your potential customers — and more from your existing customers. Now that you have their attention, and their eyeballs, you can use your channel as a sales tool, and/or you can integrate modest advertising streams, subscription or VOD elements to instantly monetize your content. It all adds up fast, and adds to the bottom line, as well. Most channels pay for themselves AND leave a profit.
- Create a Valuable New Asset — Just like your website, a TV Channel becomes an ASSET. Yes, you can show it on your Balance Sheet as a tangible asset — one that constantly increases in value the more viewers it gets. Invest $2,500 or $5,000 in developing your content into a TV Channel, and whether you have 100 loyal viewers or 1 million, you’ve created an asset worth ten times that or more.
Of course, there are many other reasons to develop and launch your own TV Channel. I have clients who use Roku channels to promote their products and services, for new product announcements or as “video brochures,” and I also have clients who use them internally for corporate training videos, OSHA videos, orientations and more. The possibilities are endless.
Bottom line, if you’re producing video content, Roku provides an added opportunity to distribute it and maximize it; to reach more viewers and earn more revenue from it. If your business or brand doesn’t already have OTT/Connected TV or Roku as a part of it’s overall marketing strategy, you’re already missing the boat — just like all those businesses and brands who were late to the game with websites.
— P.

Phil Autelitano is Founder/CEO of Mediarazzi. We develop and produce branded TV channels for Roku and Connected TV platforms. www.mediarazzi.com
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